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Published: 14 June 2017

By Oliver Maksan

Archbishop Michael Didi Adgum Mangoria has been in charge of the archdiocese of Khartoum since November 2016. The Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) recently visited Sudan. During the trip ACN spoke to the Archbishop Michael Didi about the situation of the Church in Sudan. The interview was conducted by Oliver Maksan.

Q) Archbishop, you have been in office for only a few months as yet. What do you see as your biggest pastoral challenge?

A) I am concerned above all about education and the formation of the faithful in general. But I am particularly concerned about the spiritual formation of the religious, the seminarians and the priests. That is why we must use our facilities better. These have suffered greatly in terms of personnel since the division of the country in 2011, when many of our staff left us to head back south.

Q) To what extent has the division of the country in 2011 affected the life of the Church?

A) Massively. For the greater part of the clergy and our pastoral co-workers were originally from the South. Here in the North there are very few native Christians. And even today we are in a situation where the overwhelming majority of my clergy are not from the North. Of the 51 priests and deacons only five are from the North. The rest are all from the South. This has consequences in terms of their right of residence. Following the split between North and South, the South Sudanese automatically lost their citizenship in the North. And so they are often at best tolerated here. Theoretically they could even be expelled from the country. But the authorities have understood how important the clergy are for us in the Church. So for the present we have no problems in this regard, thank God.

Q) What is the situation with regard to priestly vocations?

A) Rather bad. Unfortunately, we have only a few seminarians. And the reason for this is hard to put our finger on. But undoubtedly it has to do with the fact that the mentality of young people has changed. Perhaps the strict discipline that I still remember from my own formation is no longer attractive. But perhaps also there is a lack of awareness as to how crucial the priest is for the Church. We are after all a sacramentally ordered Church. And so without priests there can be no Church. Consequently, we will have to encourage a deeper awareness of this among the people. Above all in the families. They must learn to see the need for priests as something that concerns them directly.

Q) How deeply rooted is the Catholic Faith in Sudan? After all it only arrived here in the 19th century.

A) We are only at the beginning of the evangelisation in this regard. We need to rethink the way in which we proclaim the Word of God. Until now we have tended to look above all at the numbers. It was seen as a success if many people were baptised. But we baptised so many heathens without there being any real conversion. Many people also misunderstand the meaning of baptism. They bring their children for baptism because they are sick and they think that baptism will heal them. But this is not the attitude we need. And so the Faith is not really deeply rooted, but above all it is not fully understood. What is more, our local traditions are still very strong.

Q) Can you give an example?

A) Yes, take the question of polygamy. The people want to have offspring and heirs at any cost. And so they often have several wives. And if they have only one wife, to whom they were married in church, but don‘t have any children, then they take another. That is of course not in accordance with the Christian understanding of marriage. And they also do not understand that our priests are not allowed to marry.

Q) How are you responding to this?

A) Well, we have to really dig deep here and evangelise the culture. It is not in fact the case that there is absolutely no understanding for the teaching of the Church on marriage, when we endeavour to explain it to people. But we have to make them more fully conscious of it. This is a catechetical challenge of the first order, which I intend to tackle with my priests. We also need to form our catechists better. But above all it is down to us bishops and priests to proclaim and bear witness to the Faith. But as I have said, we cannot play down the problems, above all in conveying the teaching of the Church on marriage. We are fighting here against a deep-seated cultural mindset.

Q) We have been speaking about the problems. But what encourages you when you look at your local Church?

A) I take joy in the fact that the people are happy and proud to be Christians. They also wear Christian symbols with pride and conviction. And moreover the people are strongly involved in the life of the Church. As I said, what is lacking is the depth. But the people are of good will and have an open heart for Christianity.

Q) How can ACN help the Church in Sudan?

A) ACN is an important partner for us, and we are very grateful for its support. You have to realise that as a local church, we have practically no income of our own but are almost 100% dependent on help from the universal Church. And so when we begin any major project, then we also need the support from ACN, which indeed we have been receiving for years now for our schools and other projects. We sense the solidarity of the universal Church and we are grateful for this. The Holy Father himself is following the situation in the two countries, especially in South Sudan.

Q) Given the fighting in South Sudan, many South Sudanese Christians are also fleeing into the North.

A) Yes. This is a massive challenge for us as the Church. We are talking of several hundred thousand people who have fled to the North from the South. As the Church we are considering launching a major appeal to address the humanitarian challenges. In addition to the war refugees in the camps there are also those South Sudanese who, following independence, wanted to make their way back to their home lands, but have been forced on account of the war to remain in the North. Theoretically, they are not allowed to work here officially, because they have no papers. That has serious consequences. We in the Church are trying to help where we can. Above all we are trying to teach the children in our schools. But there are so many of them, and our resources are limited. We don‘t even have enough money to feed the children. The need is great; we cannot cope with it alone.

Editor’s Notes

Directly under the Holy See, Aid to the Church in Need supports the faithful wherever they are persecuted, oppressed or in pastoral need. ACN is a Catholic charity – helping to bring Christ to the world through prayer, information and action. The charity undertakes thousands of projects every year including providing transport for clergy and lay Church workers, construction of church buildings, funding for priests and nuns and help to train seminarians. Since the initiative’s launch in 1979, Aid to the Church in Need’s Child’s Bible – God Speaks to his Children has been translated into 172 languages and 50 million copies have been distributed all over the world. While ACN gives full permission for the media to freely make use of the charity’s press releases, please acknowledge ACN as the source of stories when using the material.

For more information or to make a donation to help the work of Aid to the Church in Need, please contact the Australian office of ACN on (02) 9679-1929. e-mail: info@aidtochurch.org or write to Aid to the Church in Need PO Box 7246 Baulkham Hills NSW 2153.